Motives for Participation in Formal Standardisation Processes for Geographic Information : An Empirical Study in Sweden

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the personal motives for participation in formal standardization processes for geographic information. The method involved interviewing members of technical committees at the Swedish Standards Institute, SIS. The results are that the majority of the interviewees are very motivated in their work and they think their participation is well-financed by their organizations allocating them to a technical committee. The main motives are to contribute to development of society and be at the forefront of development. However, this article also shows that several members participating in this study felt that they do not have sufficient time for working with tasks related to their technical committees. Their daily work in their respective organizations often has higher priority in relation to standardization work. This contrasts with the organizational goals of the participating organizations and may slow down the development of standards and other publications due to lack of resources.